I am a little bemused with the amount of unofficial recruitment officers on here, particularly recently.
BA and his merry men are ensuring we have solid depth at the club, something which we have lacked for some years. This means that competition for places in the NRL squad are fiercely contested and it is this problem, the lack of depth and solid back up players, which has seen some of the top squad on big money and basically going through the motions each week to collect their pay.
Signings like Henry, Crooks, Champion and the like are merely to cover injuries and form lapses.
I think this strategy has been long overdue and not since Brian Smith was at parra have we had a solid pool of players to choose from for the top grade.
Isaac De Gois coming mid year was very lucky for us and further exposed and exemplified the need for CHEAP and experienced signings in many positions.
Sure some of the signings we have got have had injuries, which is another reason we got them CHEAP. Look at most NRL players and most have spent prolonged periods on the sidelines with injury.
I am stoked that unlike previous coaches and recruitment officers, we are signing quite a few cheap back up players and not throwing a heap of money at just 1 or 2 big names. Watmough will cost us a fair bit of coin but we will have some quality players running around in reggies ready for the step up if poor form or injury happens to any one player from the top squad.
I agree 100% with what the club is doing regarding recruitment. Am I the only one?
Thoughts?
Replies
Champion will see a fair bit of NRL next year imo.
When he is switched on, he is a very dangerous player.
But I'm sure some will say it's the unicorn I'm riding.
I don't agree, I'd rather have two or three quality signings. What's the point having an army of nuffies when we still lack quality players in our first 17.
We don't want to confuse desperate signings as astute depth signing.
My thoughts two Joseph, whats the point of having two strong reserve grade sides????
The club has failed champion players in the past by not replacing "outgoing experienced players through retirement, at the expense of this nonsense crusade of "adding depth" to the club, and the clubs lack of salary cap space currently, ensures that any players we are pursuing are nothing but hopefuls potential or former players!
The club has lacked foresight in bucket loads for years and IMO they couldn't run a bloody chook raffle!
"You pay shit you get shit! And Parra have payed a heap of shit players over the years, again that never play grade! that they could have used to buy or attract quality!
Spot on Joseph.
Wicks will probably replace Fui & whilst Fui was at the end of his career Wicks will be an unknown quantity after his recent life experiences & the impact on his game so I'm not so confident how much of an improvement Wicks is to the squad.
Champion will probably replace Tonga & in all honesty again I'm not so sure if it is really an improvement or just a like for like from a talent viewpoint.
IMO McPherson, Nelson & Crooks look like signings for the sake of making up numbers rather than actually improving the squad per se. It begs the obvious query is McPherson & Nelson better than Smith, Tanginoa, Harrison, Santi & Lasalo, & is Crooks better than Sio, John Folau & Api Pewhairangi?
I know many fans will view my comments as negative but I really question whether the recruitment decision so far r an improvement over what we have let go.
Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating that we should have keep the baggage but I don't know if we have generally replaced baggage with equivalent baggage.
Im with you Punk
We never learn Alan, nuffies take up cap space and limit our options when quality becomes available.
Look at the Roosters, Mallony + Jennings + SBW = Premiership.
We have more than enough juniors coming through to use as depth, at least we stand a chance that some may turn out to be decent.
Instead we spend our money on proven nuffies while the top teams strengthen their already strong teams.
Enuff said.
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